NOT ASHAMED
When our FAITH BEYOND BELIEF leadership team made "reasons for hope" our main ministry theme this year, I got an email from one of our friends. She was grateful for our focus but asked for more:
Can you take hope a little further? I'm more interested in proof. Where are expressions of the hope you already have? I'm more interested in your overwhelming hope than in being convinced that hope is possible, show me you have it. To me your abundant hope is proof that your Jesus is hope to you. Jojo, show me your hope in these emails please.
Of course, we got those questions before killer wasps, economic ruin and the Covid-19 crises were in the headlines. Clearly, surviving these crises requires hope for a better future. As I read my friend's questions, though, I wanted to share with her that hope for a better future is often all that keeps me going. Though I was reluctant to talk about it with her then, the recent city council debate on banning "conversion therapy" in Calgary eventually made it clear to me that I would have to share the personal reason why I live in hope.Conversion therapy is defined as an attempt to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity through counselling, or by any other means. Advocates for the ban claim all kinds of harsh treatments are being used to force change, treatments we would never support. But the law is written so broadly it doesn't just prohibit things like electro-shock therapy or torture—the words "coercion" or "torture" don't even appear in the by-law—it also targets any kind of talking, speaking, or counselling with the aim of reducing unwanted same-sex feelings or transgender feelings, even where consenting adults are involved. This banned counselling is precisely the kind of counselling I needed, and received, for my own same-sex attractions.
"Rather than being tortured or abused, what I found was a professional counsellor who talked to me, prayed with me, and affirmed my right and ability to remain chaste and celibate."
Rather than being tortured or abused, what I found was a professional counsellor who talked to me, prayed with me, and affirmed my right and ability to remain chaste and celibate. Many people who get this counselling may not find their unwanted attractions changed, at least right away, but they can get help to choose to follow God's commands about sexuality. My counsellor helped me put my feelings into a proper perspective, helping me understand that though the culture views people through their sexual identity, God never does. And that is why we can live with hope.
Having our identity in Christ means that we are not defined by our emotional state, which can change from day to day, nor or we defined by our limited personal experience. Rather, our identity is grounded in an eternal perspective, defined by the God who made us according to His perfect plan. We are also defined by the God who set our value on an empty cross, indicating we are so loved by Him He intends to come back for us so we can live eternally with Him.
"Having our identity in Christ means that we are not defined by our emotional state. . . . our identity is grounded in an eternal perspective, defined by the God who made us according to His perfect plan."
It has been very hard to discuss these things with friends and family. Despite being a public speaker, I am quite an introvert. It takes a lot out of me to be in the public, so talking about these very personal issues is not something I like to do. But I have decided to speak out because now more than ever, young people in our culture need to hear that we do not have to be defined by who we love, but by Who loves us.
Calgary's new anti-conversion therapy bylaw (approved by city council 14-1, May 25) bans the very counselling to which I gladly consented. But the law goes further. In explaining the law, city staff stated that someone speaking in public with the aim to "reduce unwanted same-sex attraction" could potentially violate the ban. That means even sharing my testimony could result in a $10,000 fine.
In justifying the ban, Calgary city staff and councillors argued that consenting adults such as myself are either naïve or else experiencing outside pressure to reduce or remove "unwanted non-heterosexual behaviour." In other words, people who genuinely accept God's definition of gender, and desire to live according to His plan for sexuality, simply do not exist.
That is why I want to go back to my friend who sent the e-mail to say to her, "Yeah it's tough to hear that. It's tough to live under a law that deliberately ignores your very existence. But because my identity is based on what God thinks about me, not how others see me, I have reason to hope."
It was hope anchored in God's definition of reality that led to the founding of Faith Beyond Belief. We believed then, and still believe, that Canadian Christians can effectively share the gospel with grace and truth; this is the hope we see in the students we teach when they understand that the Christian worldview is the only true story of reality, and that it is a good story; this is the hope worth every sacrifice because He sacrificed everything for us 2,000 years ago.
And it's this hope that as an apologetics ministry we defend and will continue to defend, regardless of what governments will say. This will mean more persecution and more attacks – we can only begin to guess what this law means for our ministry. But as our friends and our supporters, I want you to know where we stand in a culture that shifts further away from God's good design--with Christ. We're glad to agree with the Apostle Paul when he says,
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'" (Romans 1:16-17).
- J. Ruba